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Pączki are traditional Polish doughnuts are made from yeast-leavened dough that's rich in eggs, sugar, milk, and fats. A touch of spirit, such as rum, is often added to the dough for pączki to prevent the absorption of oil during frying. They are darker and larger than their Austrian cousin krapfen and often ball-like in shape rather than round.
Traditional fillings are plum preserve and rose jam. They are placed at the center of the dough and then wrapped around it to make a ball-like shape. Pączki are much more than just a tasty treat; they hold cultural significance in Poland and among Polish communities worldwide.
Sernik is a cheesecake from Poland, stemming from old Christian and Jewish traditions. It is made with eggs, sugar, and twaróg - a type of curd cheese that has been used in desserts for hundreds of years. It is believed that sernik originated in the 17th century, when King Jan III Sobieski brought the recipe with him after his victory against the Turks at the Battle of Vienna.
Today, there are many varieties of sernik, some baked, some unbaked, but it is usually made on a layer of crumbly cake. Often times raisins, chocolate sauce, or fruits are also added to sernik, and one of the most popular varieties of the dessert has a sponge cake as its base and is covered with jelly and fruit on top.
MOST ICONIC Sernik
View moreHailing from Podlaskie region, marcinek is a dessert consisting of layers of dough, usually around twenty thin layers, which are coated with cream and stacked to form a cake-like dessert. Similar to a shortcrust pastry, the dough for the cake is made from a combination of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs, while the coating cream typically incorporates sweetened sour cream, whipping cream and flavorings such as lemon zest, almond extract, or vanilla.
The preparation of marcinek is a time-consuming process since each layer is rolled into a circle and baked separately. When the cake is layered and coated, the remaining cream is usually used to cover and decorate the sides and the top of the cake.
Optionally, it can be garnished with cookie crumbs, coconut flakes, or cocoa.
Szarlotka is a traditional apple pie that is hugely popular in all of Poland. There are countless ways of making it, but typically, it's made with shortcrust pastry or semi-shortcrust pastry and cooked or raw apples. It's a double-crust pie, and the top of the pie is usually crumbled.
However, there is one variation of szarlotka that is well-known, and that is one that also includes a meringue layer underneath the crumble topping. Szarlotka can also have other fruits like peaches and pears, the apple filling can have raisins, and the crumble topping can be mixed with almonds.
This popular Polish cream cake usually consists of two layers of pâte à choux coupled with a thick layer of creamy, vanilla-flavored pastry cream. Occasionally, the bottom crust is replaced with shortcrust pastry, while the top is always made with pâte à choux.
When sprinkled with powdered sugar, the uneven top of the cake resembles the snow-capped Carpathian mountains, hence the name. Though not much is known about its origin, the earliest mention of karpatka dates back to 1972. Considered to be a close relative of the more popular kremówka, the cake is a staple in Polish pastry shops, but it is also a common home-cooked dessert.
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Jabłecznik, also known as Polish apple cake, is a traditional dessert in Poland. It consists of a layer of spiced apple filling sandwiched between two layers of sponge cake. The more popular szarlotka is similar but has shortcrust pastry in place of sponge cake.
The apples are often mixed with cinnamon, sugar, and sometimes a touch of lemon juice, creating a sweet and slightly tart flavor profile. This cake is commonly dusted with powdered sugar before serving and is enjoyed as a comforting treat, especially during the autumn and winter months.
A mix between classic American pancakes and thin crepes, fluffy racuchy are an authentic Polish dessert. They are traditionally made with apples, but the plain varieties are also quite popular. Eggs, milk or buttermilk, sugar, and yeast or baking powder create the basic thick mix for these classic pancakes.
Apples are usually diced or thinly sliced and added last. Racuchy can range from thick to rather thin forms, depending on preference, but they are always smaller in size than crepes. The pancakes are pan-fried, resulting in a crunchy exterior with a soft and elastic center.
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Known as sękacz in Poland, šakotis in Lithuania, and bankucha in Belarus, this famous tree cake is a vital part of traditional Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian cuisine. Prepared with a thick batter which is repeatedly poured over a rotating horizontal spit, the cake is often slowly baked in the oven, or more traditionally–over an open fire.
During baking, the creamy egg batter slowly drips on the sides, creating a recognizable shape of this sweet treat. Although commonly regarded as the same cake, sękacz, šakotis and bankucha share some differences. The sękacz is usually described as the softer, more delicate version, while šakotis and bankucha tend to be denser and more decorative.
Kołocz śląski, also known as kołacz śląski, is a rectangular cake with a weight of about 5-6 kilograms, produced in four varieties - one without a filling, and the other ones with an apple, cheese or poppy seed filling. It is made in the Opole and Silesian Provinces in Poland since the 10th century when it was traditionally baked exclusively by skilled women who would let neither draughts nor men into the room while the cake was being made (it was thought to be magical!).
It has a great role as a festive cake and it was even a guarantee that the newlyweds would be blessed with children if they ate it at weddings. Today, it is a custom to bring this cake to wedding guests a few days before the event. On the exterior, it is golden in color and sprinkled with icing sugar while on the interior it is either creamy yellow (cheese), dark grey (poppy seeds) or amber (apples).
This elegant, rose-shaped dessert is prepared with the same sweet pastry for the Polish faworki, only shaped like a rose. Due to its typical shape and the tradition of making it during the carnival season, this sweet treat was named róża karnawałowa, meaning carnival rosette.
Each carnival rosette consists of three or five pastry disks of different diameters that are stacked on top of each other, with the smallest one on top, and with small slits on the outer edges. Once fried, the dessert is usually dusted with powdered sugar and adorned with a dollop of jam or a small cherry in the center.
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 33 Polish Desserts” list until March 15, 2025, 4,796 ratings were recorded, of which 3,612 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.